Garnet I really did not think you explained your opposition to doing GOTY awards by genre. Genre is the only way that makes the results useful to gamers. I use GOTY results to decide what I need to go back and play, or what to recommend to friends. For example, I picked up Red Dead and Saint's Row III ONLY because of Giant Bomb's GOTY discussion around those games. Hearing someone passionately defend their choice really motivates you to go check a game out.

Why by genre? Because frankly, most gamers do not enjoy all types of games. I think you game journalists are unique/rare in your love of everything from platformers to shooters to text adventures to MMOs. Most gamers I know stick to one or two types of games. Sports games? Don't care. Racing games? Don't care. IOS games? Don't care. Etc.

The fact that it can be difficult to decide whether a game is action, adventure, or RPG is no problem at all. First, a game DOES NOT have to fall in one category! There's nothing wrong with saying Red Dead competes in the action/adventure, RPG, open world, and multiplayer categories, or whatever. Second, the discussions around what genres are game falls into are themselves important! If I like RPGs, but not so much action, then when you tell me about all the great RPG elements in Red Dead, my ears perk up. Its useful information!

I get that certain games like Journey are hard to place in a genre because they are almost in their own genre or something. Well, if you feel it deserves it, just create a new genre to describe the type of experience the game gives you, and have it win that genre! Journey does seem like a new type of game and there's nothing wrong with recognizing that, just like "MOBA"s are their own genre. There are lots of mini-genres that should get more recognition, like my current favorite type of game is "multiplayer simulation" (World of tanks and Mechwarrior Online). I have had more fun playing these games than just about anything else this year, and its mostly because I just like this TYPE of game. They feel way more complex and tactical than the typical multiplayer shooter.

The other ways of doing it are strange. Basically any categorization where you add caveats doesn't make sense to me:

"Its really good...for a $25 game."
"Its really good...for an Xbox game."
"Its really good...for a downloadable game."

Price point? GOTY isn't about value for dollar, its about the BEST. Platform? Many hardcore gamers own more than one platform. I bought a PS3 specifically to play Uncharted, again based on GOTY discussions.

Genre isn't a caveat. You wouldn't say "Skyrim is really good...for an RPG". Gamers prefer certain genres, gamers get in the mood for a certain genre. I don't think gamers get in the mood for a game of a certain price point "I feel like playing a $10 game today!" or certain platform, except to the degree that those things actually refer to genres/styles of games like "I'd like to play a Kinect game" or "I'd like to play an artistic platformer (i.e. downloadable game)."